Directly after the 2015 All-Star Event in Utica, the league announced the formation of the Pacific Division, which would see action beginning in the 2015-2016 season. It would be filled with the AHL affiliates of all western National Hockey League franchises, the Los Angeles Kings, the San Jose Sharks, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers, and the Anaheim Ducks. So far, most of the teams have been announced for the group. The Ducks have chosen San Diego to be their affiliate, taking the name of the Gulls, the Los Angeles Kings have chosen the Ontario Reign of the ECHL to be promoted to the AHL and be their affiliate, the Edmonton Oilers have promoted the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL, and the Calgary Flames announced on Wednesday that Stockton Flames will be their affiliate starting next season. San Jose announced that their affiliate will also be in San Jose and share the same arena as the Sharks. However, a nickname has yet to be announced.
What happens from here? To start, five cities, Worcester, Manchester, Norfolk, Oklahoma City, and Adirondack (Glens Falls, NY,) lose their AHL teams. Even as a Crunch fan, this hurts me. Manchester and Worcester have had several successful franchises in the AHL for years. Right now, Manchester is on top of the Eastern Conference. Poor Norfolk, it was only a couple seasons ago, the city saw the Tampa Bay affiliated Admirals go on a 28 game winning streak and dominate their way to a Calder Cup championship. Of course, due to an affiliation trade, that team would leave for Syracuse (and make it back to the Calder Cup Finals the very next season) and take in all the Anaheim minor leaguers that were playing for the Crunch. For OKC, they were not exactly a hockey loving city based on their low attendance levels. I don’t blame the Oilers for the move. Then, there is Adirondack. Last season, they saw their Philadelphia affiliation leave for Leigh Valley. Thankfully, Calgary ended their contract with Abbotsford and moved their team, renamed the Flames, to Glens Falls. Now, like last season, the team is taken away from them in a blink.
The owners of the NHL teams with their affiliates in the Pacific Division did have good reason for the moves. With the AHL being made of teams mostly in the East and Midwest, travel was hard for the players and the entire franchises. If owners and scouts wanted to see their minor leaguers in the AHL, they would have to travel great distances cross country. Players being called up or moved down would struggle to catch flights or make travel plans just to join their teams on time for games. By moving their affiliates to the west, travel and scouting becomes easier. Plus, hockey has been growing in popularity in the west. The Los Angeles Kings and their two Stanley Cup wins added with ever growing western rivalries along the Pacific Coast have boosted the interest in hockey greatly in the west.
On the other hand, now there are cities who love hockey left without teams. In order to make it up to them, some of the cities, like Norfolk and Adirondack, might have ECHL teams coming to town to replace their AHL teams. However, that still leaves a bad taste. Especially Adirondack, I’m even upset about their situation. Glens Falls is hockey crazy, they have a history of having success with AHL franchises. Yet, in my eyes, the NHL and AHL treats them like a hockey transition town. Basically, the leagues put a team there temporarily until another city is ready to host a franchise. That’s wrong, just plain wrong. If your a fan of a AHL team in New York like me, you just lost a huge rival that is guaranteed to bolster great games with your team. Heck, keep Adirondack in the league and you can make a straight Empire Division where all the New York teams are in the same division. That would make the teams play harder than ever and put post season implications on the line for every game. Syracuse and Rochester would hopefully go back to the way their rivalry was in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. And Syracuse vs. Utica, those would be taken to levels that only hockey fans can dream of. (Note: Even without Adirondack, the Empire Division is still possible or something similar to it. Hopefully, someone on the AHL Board is reading this.)
Now, I did say hockey is growing in the West Coast. However, I don’t think it is or will ever be as popular as it is in the East and Midwest. The Pacific Division is a risk when it comes to fan popularity and attendance. While attendance to AHL games were very strong in their former affiliate cities, I am not sure they will be as strong in their new locations. If the teams in the new division don’t get great attendance numbers out of the gate or in the first couple seasons, I don’t see them hanging around for long. If you ask me, there are other cities who deserve teams in the AHL or even the NHL, like Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Vermont (Anyone who says where’s Las Vegas, just, no.)
Here’s something that gets me. All the NHL owners moving their AHL teams west complained about travel across the country. By moving their teams west, doesn’t it just move their problem to all the other AHL teams? Look at what happened when Abbotsford was in the AHL. Several times, they had to play games against teams twice in one weekend. They would either have a team travel to them for two games in a weekend or they would travel east and play one or more teams in a weekend within the same area they traveled to (Example, if they traveled to Utica for a Friday game, they would travel to Rochester for a Saturday/Sunday match.) This caused not only traveling issues, but scheduling their games would not be any better. Now, the league is expecting teams from the East to play into that same situation. Not cool. Thankfully for the Crunch, it’s been confirmed the Crunch will not play any of the Pacific Division teams next year, saving us from the hassle.
Does this move make sense for the AHL? In my mind, it’s 50/50. Though I am upset for the cities losing teams and the travel hassles to come from it, I am also happy. I am happy because the Crunch got out of their affiliation with Anaheim before the move to San Diego could happen. Even then, I think Dolgan would have told the Ducks to get lost and would have some how saved the team. Yes, he would have saved us, he’s Howard Dolgan, most of the things he wants does become reality. I am also happy because Vancouver was not in this mess and are keeping the Comets in Utica. A word to the wise though Canucks, if you’re smart, you keep any relocation ideas to yourself and NOT move the Comets. They would be completely insane to move the extremely affiliation they have going right now.
In my opinion, the AHL is trying their best to form to the NHL and make affiliations work for everyone. However, if they want to make that happen, the league is going to have to go through more relocations and changes that will make it a mirror or the NHL and a shadow of its former self. For now, I just hope this new division somehow works and doesn’t screw things up for the entire league. Until next season, that remains a mystery. fans want to watch and cheer for the prospects of the rival team? It makes no sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hockey_League
http://theahl.com/ahl-approves-formation-of-pacific-division-p196033
http://ducks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=754578
http://www.stocktonthunder.com/2015/03/11/stockton-heat-coming-fall-2015/
http://www.foxsports.com/west/story/ontario-reign-unveil-new-logo-for-2015-16-season-021115
http://www.bakersfieldcondors.com/news/bakersfield-will-join-the-american-hockey-league-in-2015-16/
http://sharks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=750913
http://wavy.com/2015/02/03/echl-admirals-will-play-in-east-division-in-2015-16/
http://thehockeywriters.com/the-life-and-death-of-the-abbotsford-heat/
http://www.syracuse.com/crunch/index.ssf/2015/01/columnist_westward_expansion_will_change_the_ahl_forever.html#incart_related_stories
ahl_announces_pacific_division_but_dont_expect_syracuse_crunch_to_make_visit_any.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Admirals
http://theahl.com/stats/schedule.php?view=attendance